Tag: Ai Wei Wei

Laurie Anderson’s new show is a network performance with Ai Wei Wei. Video from the premiere at the Luminato Festival in Toronto.

They are using Skype to connect the live Toronto performers with Ai Wei Wei in Beijing.

Network performance is a growing area and Play the Moment is on the leading edge!

I was inspired to start working with network performance by Pauline Oliveros and Chris Chafe. Chris Chafe calls these Telematic performances and has developed a software at CCRMA Lab, Stanford, that works really well. For the techies who read this blog — using Red Hat Linux OS — a communications port can be opened.

In 2010, I visited San Francisco to learn this software, and I was able to open ports on two computers and communicate using the software. This system works really well, but both sides of the performance must have the ability to operate sophisticated technology. That is why my efforts to successfully produce a network performance were not realized until I started using Waterwheel in 2012. My first solo show, Flow Time, led to the development of work for the group, Play the Moment.

It was my vision to have a combined live and networked performance that was realized with the recent Mini Maker Faire show. This was the first time one of the group members was live, playing with the networked stage on a projected screen. Now, I am seeking more of these performance opportunities so internet viewers can join concert goers to enjoy live, improvised media performances.

Now network performance is going mainstream with this show by Laurie Anderson — as mainstream as experimental performance art ever gets — but soon, I believe this will become a widely recognized genre of performance.

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Leave the Oil in the Ground News Feed

"Organic photovoltaics, made from carbon and plastic, promise a cheaper way of generating electricity.
This new study shows that organics can now be just as efficient as silicon.
Organic photovoltaics (OPV) can be made of compounds that are dissolved in ink so they can be printed on thin rolls of plastic, they can bend or curve around structures or even be incorporated into clothing."

There are constantly new research developments regarding solar energy, striving for more efficiency, greater safety and less cost. Renewable energy is the future; the possibilities are limitless.

The secret overtures offering a financial backstop to Kinder Morgan began in March, even though the Canadian government had made it clear, during its early negotiations with the Texas multinational, that it didn't want to buy the pipeline expansion project, says a new document filed with the U.S. Se...

#nopipelines #oilspill #courageGrandmother, Retired Teacher Jailed Up to Six Months for Protecting Her Land

Ellen Sue Gerhart, 63, has been a key leader in the multi-year campaign against Energy Transfer Partners’ Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline, which is being built through her property.

[Huntingdon, PA] On Friday, August 3, Huntingdon County Judge George Zanic sentenced 63-year-old grandmother, retired teacher, and landowner Ellen Sue Gerhart to two to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine for indirect criminal contempt of court.

Judge Zanic’s decision was based on accusations from lawyers for Texas-based oil and gas giant Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the developer of the pipeline project through Gerhart’s land. The company alleged that Gerhart had baited a bear onto the pipeline easement on her wooded 27-acre property.

Elise Gerhart, daughter of Ellen, said, “If you build a pipeline through the woods, you should expect to see bears and other wildlife. Judge Zanic gave this $50 billion company the power of eminent domain over my family’s property and our governor gave them the permits. My mom’s protest on her own property is not the injustice here.”

In an interview prior to her arrest, Ellen Gerhart said, “We’ve had no choice but to take a stand and defend what our government officials are unwilling to protect. Our right to peacefully object to an unjust and dangerous pipeline should be protected over the profit margin of these foreign corporations.”

Rich Raiders, attorney for the Gerhart family, said “The eminent domain condemnation case filed by Sunoco against the Gerharts remains ongoing. The Gerharts have also appealed Sunoco’s environmental permits granted by the Department of Environmental Protection concerning the wetlands permits issued to Sunoco on this project. The trial before the Environmental Hearing Board is scheduled for August 29th.

Raiders continued, “Their are still charges of harassment and unlawful taking alleged against Mrs. Gerhart pending. Mrs. Gerhart believes that these charges are a distraction from Sunoco’s ongoing litany of permit suspensions, failed horizontal directional drilling, and various project delays. We believe that the company did not present evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mrs. Gerhart’s protests were criminal. Mrs. Gerhart disagrees with Judge Zanic’s decision today and is reviewing her options and will pursue her rights to the fullest extent.”

Ellen Gerhart is an outspoken advocate, not only to protect her own land but also to protect the hundreds of waterways impacted across Pennsylvania by ETP’s Mariner East 2 pipeline project. The Gerharts have never given ETP permission to build through their family land.

Since construction began, ETP has reported an astounding 111 spills and has been issued over 65 violations by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. On May 23, ETP spilled 4,000 gallons of drilling fluid on the Gerhart property, threatening the family’s well water.

Ellen and her family’s ongoing opposition to the project has led to significant intimidation and harassment on the part of ETP, their private security contractor TigerSwan, and local authorities. The Gerharts are involved in numerous cases against state agencies and ETP over use of eminent domain, deficient environmental permits, and violations of federal civil rights laws.

"The World Geological Society finally settled on the end of World War II as the onset of the Anthropocene—sharp escalation and destruction of the environment, not only global warming, carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases, but also such things as plastics in the ocean, which are predicted to be greater than the weight of fish in the ocean not far in the future.
Humans beings, right now, this generation, for the first time in history, have to ask, “Will human life survive?”

Time to end the Anthropocene era and move to an era when humans care about each other and the Earth enough to stop "having severe and deleterious effects on the environment in which human and other life can survive."